Bill 23 is not about…

Bill 23 is not about building more diverse housing or making life more affordable for Ontario citizens. It is about enriching developers. Professional municipal staff in Guelph have confirmed that there is nothing in the legislation that will deliver rent-geared-to-income affordability. Moreover, there is nothing guaranteeing that heavily subsidized housing won’t be snapped up by corporate landlords and speculators.

We are not stupid. We can see what you are doing.

If you were serious about addressing the housing and affordability crisis, you would immediately do the following:

1) Get the estimated $30 billion of dirty money circulating every year out of Ontario’s housing market.
Ontario housing targeted by money launderers realtor group says:
https://torontosun.com/news/provincial/ontario-housing-targeted-by-mone…
The BC government estimates that money laundering in real estate is responsible for a 5% price increase:
Billions in money laundering increased BC housing prices expert panel finds:
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2019FIN0051-000914

2) Deliver 50,000 public and not-for-profit long-term care beds. There are almost 40,000 seniors waiting for long-term-care who no longer want to live in their homes. Moreover, many of their spouses are living alone in the family home because there are no spaces for them to live with their life-partner, even though it is promised by the LTC act. Providing seniors with the care they need and deserve would release thousands of homes into the housing market.

3) Implement a Province-wide vacancy tax. Combined with the Foreign Buyers Tax, the BC speculation tax saw 20,000 previously empty condo units in Vancouver come back onto the market. This tax also generated money to fund affordable housing.

Speculation and vacancy tax will help housing affordability in new communities.
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2022FIN0028-001137

4) Give municipalities the power to impose permit expiry limits.
You’ve stacked things so that municipalities have to deliver within certain timeframes. How about developers? If developments aren’t completed within a given timeframe, then the approval should expire. There are hundreds of projects across the province which have been approved, but never built.

Bill 23’s approach to wetlands is reckless and dangerous. You can’t destroy a wetland and “offset” it elsewhere. Wetlands play a critical role in controlling the flow of water and the recharge of aquifers. Allowing developers to fill in or reposition wetlands will have unknown impacts on water flow and recharge and accelerate the mass species extinction already underway.

The removal of “complexing” of wetlands is completely anti-science. You are intentionally putting the blinders on municipalities by specifically preventing them from looking at the big picture. This is manipulative and dishonest.

And then there will be the muppet homebuyers who get stuck with a 24-hour sump pump running in their basement because their house was built on a wetland.
https://www.collingwoodtoday.ca/local-news/column-secret-changes-within…

1. Wetlands (swamps, marshes, bogs and fens) are home to many species of wildlife, some quite rare and unique to the area;

2. Every food chain or food pyramid has a link to a wetland dependent species;

3. Wetlands provide flood control by absorbing the vast volume of water that can be suddenly released from rainfall or snowmelt;

4. Wetlands prevent erosion of streambanks and roadsides by slowing down the velocity of this flash flood rainfall;

5. Wetlands filter out just about everything from chunky debris to excess nutrients that flow in with dirty water from parking lots and hard surfaces… the outflow water is remarkably clean;

6. Wetlands cool the water as it seeps underground before being released downstream, and cool water supports life better than warm water (high oxygen levels and no algae);

7. Wetlands recharge groundwater supply, thus ensuring wells don’t have to be drilled deeper and deeper;

8. The production of biomass (every living thing considered as one lump) within a wetland equals a rainforest: a lot of plants means lots of oxygen released to the air, and equally a lot of carbon sequestered from the air;

9. Wetlands attract human users, who pay good money to go hunting, fishing, birdwatching, paddling and to do nature photography (not just in their gear, but buying gas, staying at resorts and hotels, and picking up food). No wetland means no visitors which means no money added to local economy.

10. Wetlands are recognized for their aesthetic value to our society. They are fun places to visit, they provide a boost to both our physical and spiritual needs. They are pleasing to look at and appreciate. Viewing a sunset over a sea of residential rooftops just isn’t the same as that sun viewed setting over acres of cattails.

Withdraw Bill 23 now.